News and events

While nearly 3 billion people remain at risk of malaria globally, long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) have contributed to a 40% decline in malaria case incidence in sub-Saharan Africa since 2000. New global targets are to reduce case incidence by 90% by 2030, but sustainable methods of control and elimination are needed to maintain this progress.

Who shapes what activities in the food system, and how, at all the different stages and levels? Using some example foods, we will be looking at the wide range of actors – people who do things, and the activities – things people do, in the many diverse parts of food systems. From direct roles like farmers, processors and consumers, to indirect ones like bankers, policy makers and scientists, we will move from designing and producing, to preserving, influencing, buying and wasting.

Over 70% of Australia’s agricultural income is derived from exports. While the trade of surplus agricultural production is regarded as a cornerstone in economic development, the world food market remains tightly regulated and protected. With on-going protectionism and the Doha Round failing to reach any consensus on agriculture at a multilateral scale, countries have been engaging in bilateral and plurilateral agreements (agreements) to bypass the impasse.

A number of LCIRAH economists attended the 11th World Congress on Health Economics at University of Bocconi in Milan, held from July 12-15, 2015. This year the congress had a special focus on health economics and nutrition. The conference, attended by 1,400 international academics, saw a large number of organised sessions and individual presentations focusing on topics relevant to LCIRAH.

Socio-economic inequalities in obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease are all linked and are largely avoidable causes of inequity in health, wellbeing and productivity outcomes. They are also all linked by the common, modifiable risk factors of active living and healthy diet. During this seminar we describe the development of socio-economic inequalities in obesity in countries like the US, UK and Australia, along with the impact of population-level obesity prevention policy and explore how we might start to reduce these inequalities.

The ‘Innovative Food Systems Teaching and Learning’ (IFSTAL) is a HEFCE-funded collaboration across a consortium of five higher education institutions: the University of Oxford, City University London, the University of Reading, the University of Warwick and the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH).

This event is hosted by All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development, together with LCIRAH and A4NH (Agriculture for Nutrition and Health). For more information & registration, please visit the external event page.

Village chicken production is practiced by many households in low-income food-deficit countries. Despite low production levels and potentially high losses due to disease, predation and theft, scavenging systems offer the advantage of requiring minimal land, labour and capital inputs. Human undernutrition remains a major public health challenge globally, contributing to over 3 million preventable maternal and child deaths each year.